Having pulled the trigger on Little Big Fat Parcells — a.k.a. Charlie Weis — Notre Dame is again on the prowl for a new head football coach for the fifth time in 13 years (don’t forget George O’Leary) after having had to conduct the same search just four times in the previous 45 years.
So the question begs, Can Notre Dame ever be Notre Dame again?
In the immortal words of Frank Burns, “Absotively.”
There is no question in my mind Notre Dame can and will be Notre Dame again if the Notre Dame adminstration finally comes through and doesn’t drop the ball for the sixth time (that includes firing Tyrone Willingham, not hiring him) since 1981 when they brought, God love him, poor Gerry Faust into be skewered.
Don’t forget, before the Irish hired Lou Holtz to succeed Faust, the same doubts about Notre Dame being able to be Notre Dame again were all over the place. We just didn’t have access to it 24/7 the way we do now. For that matter, the same questions and doubts persisted through the late 1950s and early ’60s until Ara Parseghian arrived.
Notre Dame, though, became Notre Dame again on both occasions, and it will again, because Notre Dame is a special place, and special things, most of which have nothing to do with sports, happen there. Notre Dame is a magic place because life there is based on and fueled by faith.
How will that matter when it comes to putting a winning football program on the field? Look, I haven’t rooted for Notre Dame since 1996, and I haven’t been to Notre Dame since 1989, but I have been there, and I know it will matter, because it has so many times before.
Scoff if you will, but if Notre Dame can finally hook up “right man” with “special place,” Notre Dame will be Notre Dame again.
Life of Brian
Perhaps the most interesting — and to me, hilarious — name to surface as a possible candidate for the Notre Dame job is that of former Ravens coach Brian Billick. I mean, how funny would that press conference be, not to mention the many more that would follow, if Notre Dame completely lost its marbles and hired Billick?
Well, don’t expect it to happen. No way is the Notre Dame administration ever going to allow “The Word of Life” mural located on Hesburgh Library to be referred to as “Touchdown Brian.”
Is this dubbed?
I could let this pass if they’d ever stop running the commercials on TV and radio, which, of course, they’re not going to do; but the entire tenor of those Troy Polamalu shampoo commercials is just very unsettling to me. Not because the Steelers safety is pushing shampoo, not because I believe he makes a fool of himself (and if I believed that, I certainly wouldn’t put it in writing beneath a picture of my yet-to-be-fractured face), not because I begrudge his being paid a lot of bucks for making a commercial. It’s just each time I see or hear those ads I still hear something I’m not expecting to hear.
It’s like when Grossberger sings in “Stir Crazy.” The sound doesn’t fit the picture, and you find yourself stopping whatever it is you’re doing to say, “ ... What?”
Life’s full of tradeoffs
What’s left to be said about Tiger Woods and his alleged peccadilloes that hasn’t already been said? Actually, more than likely a whole lot.
We talked on Sunday about this thing taking on directionless legs, and while those legs have been running in many different directions, they all come to a stop at the same place and at the feet of the same person, Tiger Woods. So why shouldn’t this all be news, and big news at that? Tiger has made some big, big money by controlling and cultivating his image through the media and through his sponsors all of these years, hasn’t he?
I would like to clarify my intent was not to target the media on Sunday when I said it was only just the beginning as far as having this story shoved down our throats. I don’t blame the media; I don’t even blame the John Waynes of Cyberspace. I blame Tiger Woods for ever letting this happen. No, I never thought of him as being perfect, but I did always think of him as being responsible.
If we were going to blame the media for anything here, it would be for raising our expectations too high to begin with. But you know what? We bought it. We were the buyers hook, line and sinker.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
Mike Burke - Sports
It’s not on the next coach, it’s on ND to find him
- Mike Burke - Sports
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Somewhere over the rainbow starts here
During a break in the program Sunday night, former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Bob Robertson sat at a table backstage sharing some stories from the day when he played some of the finest defensive first base and hit some of the longest home runs in the major leagues in helping the Bucs to the 1971 world championship.
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Ronnie Cage’s life was deeds, not words
It was right they observed a moment of silence at the Allegany-Fort Hill basketball game. And I hope they observed a moment of silence at all of the games this week — boys and girls, men’s and women’s — in all the area gyms — Maryland and West Virginia.
That’s because Ronnie Cage worked them all. And before that he played them all. -
No plus-one would have come out of this Orange
Having never been what one would call a big West Virginia fan, I nevertheless find myself entertained by Mountaineers head football coach Dana Holgorsen whenever I take in a WVU game.
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Daumie No. 51
It’s difficult and it’s unsettling — something we’re not ready to come to terms with, really — when we lose Larger than Life.
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At Fort Hill, they’re all in it together
They still decorate their homes and neighborhoods with red and white streamers and signs. They hang football helmets with jersey numbers on telephone poles and trees, and they leave them there until it’s pretty much time to decorate for Christmas.
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Let’s keep lips zipped and just go about our business
The worst part about snow, other than shoveling it, of course, is being surrounded by all the moaning and groaning about how much it’s going to snow before a flake even touches earth and then having to put up with the same moaning and groaning once it begins to snow.
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There are no queens on the sports page
Some high school football seasons it is easier to tell when big things have happened and when big things are ahead by some of the phone calls and letters we receive here in the Times-News sports department. There just seems to be more of a chippiness some years than in others, and this year has been one of those years.
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K.C. latest Laffey Tour over America destination
As of now it appears Aaron Laffey will be wearing royal blue again — Kansas City Royals blue, that is — as the Royals acquired the former Allegany High School left-hander from the New York Yankees in a waivers claim on Tuesday.
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In America ...
Of course you remember where you were when you heard.
What you really remember is how you felt when you realized it wasn’t just a bad pilot or an airplane malfunction when you saw the second plane go into the second tower.
Until the day we are no longer here, the realization that we had just been attacked — somehow, by somebody — will stay with us and move us. -
Keyser, Fort Hill clash tonight
Fort Hill and Keyser, both coming off lopsided season-opening victories, will square off at Greenway Avenue Stadium, while Frankfort entertains Grafton in the Falcons’ home opener in two of seven high school football games featuring nine area teams taking place tonight.
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